Only Artists

The theatre producer and writer David Lan meets the composer Nico Muhly.

David Lan was the artistic director of the Young Vic in London for 18 years, winning the special Olivier Award in 2018 for his outstanding contribution to the stage. Born in South Africa, he trained as an actor, and then gained PhD in social anthropology, before working as a writer and director.

Nico Muhly has written more than 80 works, including the opera Marnie, staged by English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including Philip Glass and Bjork, and his recent work for the screen includes the score for the BBC TV drama Howards End. Three of his compositions have inspired new dance works, currently being performed at Sadlers Wells.

Lavinia Greenlaw has published six collections of poetry, including The Built Moment which reflected on her father’s dementia. Her novels include In the City of Love’s Sleep, about a relationship sparked by a chance encounter in a museum. She also writes about art and music, including a book on how pop shaped her young identity. She was the first artist in residence at the Science Museum, and her immersive sound work, Audio Obscura, won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry.

Charles Avery grew up on the island of Mull. For more than 15 years, he has worked on a single project – the invention of an imaginary island, creating its people, settlements, landscapes, forests and creatures through paint, sculpture and text. The main town is called Onomatopoeia, and it’s rumoured that the island is home to an elusive beast called the Noumenon.

Producer Clare Walker

The saxophonist Jess Gillam meets the bass guitarist Gail Ann Dorsey.

In 2016 Jess Gillam became the first-ever saxophonist to reach the final of the BBC Young Musician competition, and in 2018 she was a soloist at the Last Night of the Proms. Her debut album Rise topped the UK classical charts. She also presents This Classical Life on BBC Radio 3.

Gail Ann Dorsey was a member of David Bowie’s band from 1995 until his death. She would often duet with him on stage, including taking the part originally performed by Freddie Mercury on Under Pressure. She has released three solo albums and has worked with a wide range of artists, including Tears for Fears, Boy George and Charlie Watts.

Producer Clare Walker

The playwright Simon Stephens meets Simon Armitage. the Poet Laureate.

Simon Stephens has created more than 30 works for the theatre. They include original dramas, such as Punk Rock, set in the library of a Stockport school, new versions of plays by Chekhov and Ibsen, and the highly successful stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which won the Olivier Award for the best new play, and the Tony Award for the best play on Broadway.

Simon Armitage is the current national Poet Laureate, a role he began in May 2019. He published his first full-length collection of poems, Zoom!, in 1989. Since then has published more than a dozen volumes of poetry, along with fiction, an acclaimed translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, works for theatre, film, television and radio, and a book about of his love of pop music, and his band The Scaremongers.

Producer Clare Walker

The painter Chantal Joffe meets the writer Olivia Laing.

Chantal Joffe was Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy of Arts until 2019, and is renowned for her bold, large-scale portraits of women, and for her self-portraits. She has won the Charles Wollaston Award for the 'most distinguished work' in the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, chosen from more than 1300 entries. In 2018 she set herself the challenge of creating a self-portrait every day.

Olivia Laing's books include The Lonely City, a reflection on what it means to be alone, which has been translated into 17 languages and sold over 100,000 copies, and The Trip to Echo Spring, which focuses on the connections between creativity and alcohol. Her novel Crudo, set in the summer of 2017, was widely acclaimed and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2019.

Producer: Clare Walker

The artist Helen Cammock meets the dramatist Suhayla El-Bushra.

Helen Cammock’s work explores social history through film, photography and performance. She won the Max Mara Prize last year and is nominated for this year’s Turner prize for her film The Long Note, which focuses on the role of women in the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.

Suhayla El-Bushra has written extensively for TV including episodes of Hollyoaks and Ackley Bridge. Her plays include The Arabian Nights for the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh, and she has also written for the National Theatre. She is currently adapting the novel The Long Song by Andrea Levy.

Producer: Clare Walker

Roddy Doyle is the author of 11 novels including The Commitments, which was adapted into a successful film and stage musical, The Snapper, and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, which won the Booker Prize. His most recent novel, Smile, focuses on institutional abuse at a Christian Brothers secondary school, and draws on his own experiences.

Antony Gormley is best known for the giant Angel of the North near Gateshead. His work can also be seen at Crosby Beach on Merseyside, where 100 cast-iron figures stand looking out to sea. His current exhibition, at the Royal Academy in London, includes a work called Clearing, which fills a gallery with 8 km of aluminium tube, and Host, which floods another with earth and seawater.

Producer Clare Walker

The artist Katie Paterson meets the novelist David Mitchell.

Katie Paterson is an award-winning artist whose conceptual works have included the sounds of melting glaciers and a map of 27,000 dead stars. She also sent a meteorite back into space. An exhibition of her work can be seen at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art until May 2020.

The best-selling author David Mitchell has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize twice – for number9dream and Cloud Atlas. Next year he will publish his ninth novel.

Photo © Brendan McNeill

Producer Katy Hickman

The composer Max Richter meets the artist Tacita Dean.

Producer: Clare Walker

The costume designer Sandy Powell meets the art director and set-designer Simon Costin.

Sandy has 14 Academy Award nominations, including two this year for The Favourite and Mary Poppins Returns. She has won three Oscars - for Shakespeare in Love, The Aviator and The Young Victoria - and has worked extensively with Martin Scorsese, most recently on The Irishman.

Simon works with leading fashion houses such as Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci and Stella McCartney. He collaborated with Alexander McQueen to stage his spectacular catwalk shows. He is also Director of the Museum of British Folklore, and the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall.